iBooks 2 and Print

iNation

Last week Apple unveiled an update to iBooks and an easy-to-use iApp for anyone to create interactive books. Up to this point Apple has had little success with iApps that were not about organizing ones digital lives. iTunes and iPhoto are raging successes. iMovie, iDVD, and Garageband, while popular, require a different level of interest and skill in content creation not needed with the other two. Let’s not forget, like most already have, about iWeb — the app that was supposed to revolutionize creating web pages.

Although iWeb is painless for creating passable website, Apple handicapped its potential by attaching it to a pricey MobileMe subscription service. But the Web, with its democratic openness, gave users an abundance of options to create their online presence. Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr, and all of the other “social” platforms made it easier and less restrictive. Apple could not tame the Web.

The iBook Author app is not iWeb. The interactive books you create with this app can really only go to one place — the iBook Store. Apple owns, controls, and sells the only creation tool, the distribution point, and the consumption devices. Once again, they have created a blue ocean to swim in where the take is 30% from content they do not even create.

Apple Gets

• A publishing army to feed its iBook store
• 30% of your books sale price
• More Macs and iPads sold

With that said, the consumer does get a powerful and free tool to digitally self-publish. iBook Author is dead simple and while Apple has originally positioned it as a way to publish textbooks, the bigger market is in the consumer market. Apple can cross-pollinate features perfected in other iApps to make this an awesome tool for consumer books, whether digital or printed.

The Next iBook App

No doubt, Apple will add more starter templates geared toward the consumer market like photo books in later updates. By integrating with iPhoto, your picture library can be shared in a digital iBook or can still be printed as a memento for the coffee table. Since iPhoto is also aware of your pictures meta data (location, time taken, etc.) and has built-in facial recognition, the cumbersome process of designing your photo book could be streamlined. Apple already does this with iMovie and iDVD, and iPhoto could have a magic picture book option too.

Not everyone who creates an iBook will want to publish it to the iBook Store, but instead would like to share with a smaller group. Now that Apple has built out a cloud platform for music matching and streaming, the same cloud could be used to distribute your digital photo book to Grandma and Grandpa’s iPad for $2.99. After all, anyone who uses an i device has a registered, trackable account with Apple.

Printers Take Heed

Did Apple, yet again, steal your pulp? Not much changes in the short-term. K-12 Schools historically have been second only the federal government in their bureaucratic quicksand. There are budget constraints, teacher unions, and parents to navigate through. Indeed it may come down to simple mathematics. If a textbook costs a public school district $100 and can be used for up to 5 years(as the Apple video suggests), then the cost is $20 per student and year. The costs of these first digital textbooks are $14.99 and cannot be reused by multiple students. Then there is the cost of the actual iPad which at volume educational pricing would still be more than the $5 per year to match the costs of the traditional textbook. The higher education textbook market where students purchase their own devices and books is where the disruption will happen first.

Printers or platforms that cater to self-publishing should keep as watchful an eye on what happens in this space, especially if Apple continues to develop the author application’s feature set toward the consumer side.

As Apple has shown with the music and film business, it is prudent to plan for a world already disrupted by their technology. So the question to start asking is “What will I do when Apple does steal all my pulp?”

photo: Apple, Inc.